Read All About It!

It is my extreme pleasure to introduce you to volunteer all-star, vol-star, if you will, Liza Verzijl. Liza first came to us last October for our Volunteer Work Days and quickly proved to be quite the catch. The piles of immaculately folded Open Books t-shirts were only the beginning of what Liza had to offer! A tremendous help at the Open Books store (Liza was shelving books before we had officially opened our doors!) and now a stellar writing coach at Adventures in Creative Writing field trips, Liza is a true pleasure to have on our team. On top of all of this, she is also a blast to have around! Thank you, Liza, for all that you do!

Name: Liza Verzijl

Neighborhood: Streeterville

Job: Looking for one as a Dutch teacher

Open Books programs/events you’ve participated in:

Volunteer Work Days, Open Books Store, Adventures in Creative Writing Field Trips, Office work



The 1o Questions We Always Ask



If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Sugar. Ah, that’s an ingredient. Unhealthy sweet food, then.

Have you ever met (or even seen) anyone famous randomly in public? Who?

Willem Defoe was sitting a few seats away in the cinema. He walked out during his own movie.

If not, what famous person would you like to meet?

Oprah. I know it sounds tacky but she is well known in The Netherlands. Chicago = Oprah. At least all the women know that the Oprah Show is recorded in Chicago so the question that keeps popping up is “have you already been to/on the Oprah Show?”  Pfff, just invite me and get it over with.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

At home: Electric shocks from light switches.

In Chicago: Too few bike paths in the city and people that cannot pronounce ‘Van Buren’.

Globally: Green living is still not on the minds of enough people.

What is the earliest book you remember reading, and why was it special?

Eric Carle – Rupsje Nooitgenoeg (The Very Hungry Caterpillar). The drawings in that book, the shape of the pages because of the bites of the caterpillar, it was magic.

What was your first job ever?

When I was 15, I had a summer job at the city hall pouring coffee and tea for the civil servants. It was extremely boring so I entertained myself by remembering how everybody liked his/her coffee or tea. It was the first time I had a young foreign colleague that was just learning Dutch. I remember my boss talking to her with an extremely loud voice like that would help her understand Dutch. I think that made me a Dutch teacher for foreigners.

If you could instantly be good at any given thing, what talent would you choose to have?

Being diplomatic. I’m just not.

If you were a pattern, what pattern would you be?

OMG, I would be a ferocious Sudoku pattern.

Who is your favorite character from a fiction or non-fiction book?

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

If a book were written about your life, what would it be called?

Liza’s Great Foreign Adventures

Are you a dog person or a cat person?

More a cat person but I try to not like them too much; they lose their interest for cuddling if you’re too eager, haha.